


try not to get too bored without me

by doublejoint



Series: peachtober 2020 [16]
Category: The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27065338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: He’s turning into his mother, he thinks, for a horrible second.
Relationships: Andy Barbour/Theodore Decker
Series: peachtober 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953295
Kudos: 6





	try not to get too bored without me

**Author's Note:**

> #peachtober day 16: Stripes
> 
> AU where Theo & Andy meet up at some point and are dating during Andy's first year of college

Theo dwarfs him. They are still growing, Andy reminds himself, the way his mother reminds him, looking at him next to Platt, or even next to Kitsey and Toddy, who should really not be as tall as they are. Andy is used to being short, for his age, for his classmates (skipping a year will do that to you), but Theo’s already caught up to and exceeded everyone they used to go to school with. Andy’s still stuck in the lower half of five feet, while Theo has to wedge his legs awkwardly in the seats near the back of buses, knees scraping the seats in front of them. It’s unfair, but life has been nicer to Andy in a lot of respects, so he can’t begrudge Theo this too much. 

Still.

He’d rather not have to awkwardly stand on his toes or find a step to stand on to kiss Theo. It’s too stupid, conspicuous, out of one of those vapid teen dramas his roommate is always watching without headphones. Well, whatever. Public displays of affection are trashy, anyway.

Andy always forgets that the Hungarian Pastry Shop is cash-only because he doesn’t go there often enough, but he’s got a fifty crumpled in his wallet and he pays for half a pound of the pink leaf cookies, two cream puffs, and two coffees. 

“You could have gone to Columbia,” says Theo. “Gone here every day.”

Andy wrinkles his nose. “I’d have to go home on the weekends. And their math department’s nowhere near as good as MIT’s. Not to mention, my parents would be thrilled--they know way too many people who went there or work there, and I’d have to go visit some humanities professors in their rent-controlled apartments with no air conditioning.”

That apparently doesn’t sound too bad to Theo, but of course it wouldn’t. He’d probably love to appraise their old marble-top tables and scratched-up antique chairs. 

“You’re home this weekend,” says Theo.

Andy almost says that he’d come home just to see Theo and not his parents--but again, that sounds like a goddamn teen drama. But he hadn’t come home just to buy half a pound of cookies from a shop with a striped awning (though they’re absolutely better than anything you can get in the North End, no matter what any insufferable New Englander says). 

“Not every weekend,” says Andy. “Flying that often is too impractical.”

They walk around the Cathedral grounds for a bit, Theo stuffing his entire cream puff in his mouth and grinning at Andy because he knows exactly where Andy’s mind is going. Andy considers shoving him into the fence, but they’re nominally close enough to be adults that he’ll take the high road here and just sip at his coffee, and maybe oh-so-accidentally hit Theo’s leg with his bag full of cookies.

The trees are still hanging onto the summer, red and yellow and brown crawling up their leaves but ever-so-slowly; above them and around them it’s still mostly green. It’s cold enough for hot coffee, but only just; neither of them is wearing a jacket. Soon, though--the idea of missing most of autumn back home is weird, even if he won’t be that far away, and logically he knows that the weather in Massachusetts isn’t that much different. The days will be a little shorter and darker, but he’ll be inside to keep away from the allergens. He spends most of every summer out of the city, anyway. But staying would have been completely impractical. 

“How’s your video game translation going?” says Theo.

“Fine,” says Andy, pushing up his glasses. “Well, fine overall. Some of the other people working on the project are trying to do these dumb cultural translations. Most of them are clunky analogues, if even that, and the audience for this is fans who are familiar enough with Japanese culture to either know things or know how to look them up.”

Theo nods. He’s not that interested, but it’s nice that he’s faking--Andy cannot be bothered to ask about the antiques, but Theo doesn’t really like to talk about them to people who aren’t already in the know about wood grains and eras of furniture. That’s a conversation Theo can have with Andy’s mother, and in fact often has with Andy’s mother.

“You’re still on track, though?”

“Yes,” says Andy. “We ought to be finished by the end of the year. My classes are ridiculously easy, and I’m not even getting real grades yet. So I have plenty of time to work on it.”

Theo nods and sips his coffee. There’s cream from his cream puff on the side of his mouth, and Andy, thoughtlessly, reaches up to swipe it away. He’s turning into his mother, he thinks, for a horrible second, but there’s nothing parental about him touching Theo’s mouth, is there? 

“Are you going to lick it off?” says Theo.

“Disgusting,” says Andy, but he does it anyway, watching Theo’s eyes behind the glare of the sun on his glasses. 

Theo makes an involuntary sound in the back of his throat.

“Payback’s a bitch,” says Andy.

Theo almost fake-accidentally spills his coffee on Andy. Almost.

* * *

“Are you going to be back before Thanksgiving?” Theo asks. 

If there’s still coffee in his paper cup, it must have gone cold by now. Andy shrugs.

“Probably not.”

The wind whips down the avenue, and Andy adjusts his backpack on his shoulders. He’s reminded, all of a sudden, of Theo leaving to go off to the desert with his father, all those years ago, the weirdness the empty space of him had left. 

“Try not to get too bored without me,” they both say at the same time. 

Theo cracks a tired grin, and Andy thinks about asking him, again, about the things he won’t talk about--but better not ruin the moment, for once. There’s a cab waiting across the light; Andy sticks out his hand to hail it.

“Mail me some cookies if you can.”

Just before Theo closes the door of the cab behind Andy, he ducks down and gives him a kiss. Andy had been just about to remark on the gentlemanliness of him getting the door, but--that leaves him silent long enough, until Theo steps back and Andy realizes he needs to remember to tell the driver he’s going to La Guardia.


End file.
